A show is happening soon, and you’re just not sure what to do with your life. You have a limited amount of time, and there are only so many things you can do at a show, so how will people know you exist if you don’t give it some thought?

That’s why it is important to plan out all of your trade show marketing strategies before the event. Doing this ahead of time will save you lots of wasted energy in the run up to the show!

Business owners spend a lot of time and money showing off their products and services, giving them high visibility at the show. If you want to get more attention, then don’t be shy about using that information to create an effective campaign!

There are plenty of ways to market yourself at a show, but sometimes people get overwhelmed by the options. It is easy to make wrong decisions when you don’t have clear guidelines or examples, which is why we have gathered some tips for you here.

We have divided our list into three main sections, one for each primary type of businessperson attending the show. These include entrepreneurs, marketers and sales professionals.

Expose your company to potential clients

As mentioned before, showing off your company’s products is one of the most effective ways to promote yourself at a trade show. But how about going one step further? How about sharing stories that emphasize why you are there and what benefits your attendees can gain by meeting you!

Your colleagues will feel more motivated to attend the next event if they see you interacting with others, but also know who you are and what you offer them. This creates an indirect way to influence their attendance – by seeing you in action, people will want to join you or at least watch you work.

A great way to do this is via storytelling. Create a story related to your business and share it with the world! Your followers may not necessarily be attending the same conference, so its effect outside of your target audience cannot be limited to just those people.

The possibilities for telling engaging tales are almost endless, giving you many opportunities to spread your message.

Leverage social media

As we mentioned before, showing off your company’s products is only half of effective trade show marketing. The other important part is promoting yourself and your business through online channels.

By now you probably have a few accounts on some of the major social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Add yours to that list!

Running a business means there are always things to do. And since most people these days have their cell phone with them at all times, they can easily pick up where they left off when someone calls or messages them.

This is great for getting back into work after the conference, but it can be a problem if you are not actively posting about your business and self on social media.

Your followers may get sick of seeing the same pictures and comments over and over again. They will begin ignoring your updates, which will hurt your brand in the long run.

To prevent this from happening, make sure to update your account at least once a day. You can even schedule certain posts ahead of time to keep up with your routine.

But what if someone needs help immediately? There are several ways to deal with this situation.

For example, you can “follow” or “like” another user's post and add your own comment or reaction. Or you can start your own conversation by commenting or asking questions about something related to your line of work.

Distribute promotional materials

As mentioned earlier, your trade show booth is an excellent platform to promote your product or service. But how will people know you exist if they can’t find you? Make sure to spread word of your presence at the expo through distribution of promotional material such as flyers, business cards, brochures, etc.

You do not have to stick one item per person, instead try grouping several items together in one place to make it easy for attendees to access them. For example, put all of your literature in one area and give people space to grab what they want information about!

Distributing promotional material outside of the exhibit site is also a great way to expose your brand to more potential customers. Many vendors use printed fliers to hang from street lights, pop up at coffee shops, and drop off at various businesses to gain attention.

These are just some creative ways to advertise that don’t cost a lot of money unless you hire someone to help with it. By investing time in advertising yourself, you will reap the benefits in exposure and sales long after the event comes to a close.

Identify your target market

Even if you’re not an entrepreneur, or don’t plan to run your own business at some point, it is important to know who your audience is. This will influence how you approach marketing for this audience, and what messages you use in your advertising.

It can be tricky figuring out who your targeted audience is though. Try as best you may, there are so many things that determine whether someone is an investor, or just buying a product to satisfy their desire for self-improvement.

There are several ways to identify this information. You could do an indirect way by asking questions about the products and how they benefit people, but even then you would need to look for signs of investment. Another direct way would be to ask if they have invested in anything similar before, or if they heard any good reviews.

Once you have gathered enough clues, compare these findings with other facts about the person, and see where these match up with the nature of the product. For example, if their tone suggests they might invest in something, confirm it!

This article will go into more detail on some helpful trade show tips, including how to connect with your potential audience members.

Design your marketing message

As mentioned earlier, the first way to effectively market yourself is by defining what you want to get out of this experience. This includes how you wanted to promote your business/product before coming, as well as what types of strategies you will use while here.

Your speech should tell who you are and what you offer through your talk and promotional materials. Make sure your audience understands who you are and what you can do for them!

You can also make it clear with your promotional material where you are located, what services you provide, and when and how people can contact you. All of these things help establish trust in you as an expert in your field!

Keep exploring new ways to advertise yourself and your company so that people know who you are and what you have to offer.

Test your website

The next step in pre-show preparation is to test your existing online marketing strategies. Are your videos loading? Does your site load quickly? Can you tell if someone has visited your page or not by looking at the pictures and/or content? If so, great job!

You have already done some of the hard work of preparing for the show, but now it’s time to put all these pieces together into an effective campaign. Make sure everything works before adding more to the mix.

Link your website to your social media profiles

It is not enough to have all of these brands, companies, and individuals as followers or fans on their social media accounts. You must also link those accounts to your site so that people can visit it if they want more information about you or what you offer.

This is especially important now since most people’s attention spans are shorter than ever before. If someone does not see the value in your products or services after looking at them for a few minutes online, then they will probably forget about you quickly.

Linked accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest can be done using any one of the common web management tools like Google, Yahoo!, or Microsoft’s own tool.

Distribute press releases

Press release distribution is one of the most important ways to promote your business before, during, and after a trade show. Even if you are not able to attend the event, distributing a press release allows your team to spread your message and increase exposure for your company!

Press releases can be distributed through social media sites or via free publication services such as Google News. By using these resources, your news will be seen by many people which increases overall awareness of your products and services.

Distributing a press release does not need to be done directly online either. You can send an email announcement to friends, colleagues, and associates that may be in touch with attendees of the expo. If you have some materials to share, you can also send them via SMS or WhatsApp messages to get more exposure.